The COVID-19 pandemic has disturbed, uprooted, and distorted every aspect of our daily lives. But how has the pandemic affected the U.S. immigration system?
The pandemic has resulted in massive operational and logistical restrictions on immigration services in the United States and abroad. Border closures and temporary standstills in administering asylum claims that have made it impossible for those fleeing conflict areas to evacuate and seek asylum. All entries into the United States, along both borders have been severely restricted. Foreign students are struggling to get emergency F-1 visa interviews scheduled before the Fall semester of school starts. Multinational executives are being denied entry and are consequentially unable to personally oversee their financial investments in the United States. Nationally renowned foreign-born entertainment troupes and comedians are being forced to cancel shows and tours. Provisional unlawful presence waiver applicants who have been waiting in line for an immigrant visa interview, for years, are having their interviews cancelled without any indication of when such interviews will be rescheduled. Noncitizens travelling through certain countries, including most of Europe, are being forced to quarantine for two weeks in the event they’re even able to enter the United States.
On top of all of this, tens of thousands of people remain in immigration detention, many of whom are nonviolent, in facilities that are breeding grounds for COVID-19 and which lack the resources to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These detained individuals are being unnecessarily subjected to an unacceptably increased risk of contracting the supervirus known as COVID-19. These problems, along with many others related to immigration court, are aggravated and complicated by the fact that the pandemic led to the suspension of almost all immigration court hearings and limited the functioning of those few courts which remain open. For example, the Minnesota Court in Fort Snelling has been closed for all non-detained hearings since March and will currently remain closed for non-detained matters through at least August 17 (as of July 28, and is subject to change).
In light of the many restrictions in the government offices, at the border, and the grave danger of being placed in an immigration detention center which is unable to control the spread of COVID-19, one may ask, “how is my immigration case going to be affected?”
Longer wait time for Application
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) is attempting to alleviate the effects of the virus on application processing by extending deadlines to respond to Requests for Evidence or other similar notices. Unfortunately, this attempt to infuse flexibility has created a foreseeable but substantial backlog. Complicating this issue is the fact that USCIS may run out of money in or around August 2020, which would make them less able to make final decisions on immigration applications, increasing the backlog further. On May 27, 2020, USCIS announced its plans to furlough a portion of its 19,000 employees if Congress doesn’t provide the federal agency with $1.2 billion in emergency funding to remain operational during the coronavirus pandemic. USCIS has begun issuing furlough notices to its employees and anticipates that the agency will need to furlough approximately 13,400. However, on July 27, 2020, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced that USCIS has agreed to postpone the furloughs of more than 13,000 USCIS employees from August 3 until August 31.
Right now, USCIS is still up and running. Although there is a backlog and anticipated longer wait times for decisions and notices, you may still submit all applications types at this time.
Court Delays
The COVID-19 pandemic closures hit immigration courts hard, which has strained an outdated court system that already was struggling with a backlog of more than a million cases prior to the declaration of a pandemic. The Immigration courts first shut their doors, in response to COVID-19, in March 2020, indefinitely postponing scheduling and individual hearings for hundreds of thousands of people. Since then, certain immigration courts have resumed hearings, but solely for noncitizens held in ICE detention. A minority of immigration courts have resumed hearing non-detained matters, but the immigration court in Minnesota is not among them. As of time of writing, the Minnesota court in Fort Snelling will remain closed through at least August 17, 2020. For those who have had Master calendar hearings postponed, most are being rescheduled for the end of 2020 and early 2021. For individual hearings, dates are being pushed out until 2023. There has been unofficial chatter speculating that, when the Minnesota immigration court does reopen, it will only open for individual hearings and will continue to postpone scheduling hearings or find a way to make scheduling hearings obsolete.
If you have an upcoming hearing that has not been postponed yet, plan on attending, as notice of closures are a few weeks out. However, do not be surprised if you hearing is rescheduled. Be reassured that a postponed hearing has no bearing on the outcome of your case.
What Can You Do?
Stay in communication with your attorney. We are monitoring the USCIS operations and court openings regularly. If you don’t have an attorney yet, schedule an appointment and we’ll do our best to help you navigate your immigration case during these unprecedented times.